Do People Have 'Gill Slits' in the Womb?

Institute for Creation Research ^ | 7/23/2012 | Brian Thomas, M.S.

[Former Fetus]

German zoologist Ernst Haeckel is perhaps most famous for defending evolution with the argument that creatures replay their evolutionary past when developing in the womb. Since Darwin's time, textbooks have reiterated that early embryos of many vertebrates, including humans, have tiny pouches that reflect an evolutionary fish stage. More recently, embryologists thoroughly refuted that concept, and others have shown that Haeckel's drawings were partially faked. And a new online video taken from 3-D scans of a developing baby's face should bury Haeckel's old and uninformed argument.

Embryologist and evolutionist Michael Richardson and colleagues dropped a bomb on Haeckel's long-held concept known as "embryonic recapitulation." He compared Haeckel's old drawings with actual photographs of the same embryos in a 1997 technical paper.1 The comparison showed that Haeckel's drawings were frauds.

Richardson's report revealed that in order to make animal embryos look more similar at a certain early stage of development, Haeckel had omitted limb buds and heart bulges and resized and selected certain creature's embryos.2 Since Haeckel had to manipulate data to conform it to his evolutionary notions, then perhaps embryos—including human—do not rehearse their "evolutionary past" after all.

[Former Fetus]

As the holder of a Ph.D. in Biology, I am familiar with the fraud perpetrated by Haeckel. As a born-again Christian I believe in Creationism. And, as an adult human being, endowed with common sense, I like to say "Beware of the Darwinians!"

[SkyDancer]

I remember reading somewhere that those ‘gills’ actually became the ears. Not sure though so don’t quote me.

[DallasDeb]

Great article! Of course, we already knew that. Thanks for the post.

[rem_mitchell]

Ontogeny recapitulates phylogeny.

[Damifino]

First the big-bang, now this. I’m not sure my highschool years had any value at all. HA!

[allmendream]

Wow, just now catching on to what has been well known among biologists for ages?

Steven Jay Gould wrote an entire book about it in 1977, tracing the fall of the the idea to the early 20th century.

Nice to know you are catching up to arguments made a hundred years ago.

http://www.amazon.com/Ontogeny-Phylogeny-Stephen-Jay-Gould/dp/0674639405

[UCANSEE2]

"Hey ma, I got a new girlfriend."

[Cyman]

Only if they will grow up to be lawyers. Sharkskin too.

[FroggyTheGremlim]

Loved that monster (”creature”) - in both movies.

[Inyo-Mono]

I think that was Clint Eastwood dressed as the monster.

[stuartcr]

Does it matter?

[Colorado Cowgirl]

Thank You for the post, Doctor. I’ve been reading Institute for Creation Research material for over 30 years. I receive Days of Praise everyday by email, Great stuff. God Bless!

[E. Pluribus Unum]

The old "ontogeny recapitulates ontology" thing again.

[YHAOS]

Beep!

[datura]

I always thought there was something fishy about that.

[lonestar]

I had a college friend who had to have minor surgery with something to do with “gills that didn’t disapear.” It was covered with skin and I don’t remember how it was discovered. I didn’t make it up because I had never heard of people having gills! LOL!

[lonestar]

P.S. It was on her neck below her ear. IIRC, only on one side of her neck.

[aNYCguy]

Very interesting. Would you mind saying where you studied biology? What was your thesis on?

I'm not challenging you; I'm genuinely curious because I've never gotten to speak with a holder of a Doctorate in biology who denies evolution. You're a rare animal.

[Former Fetus]

I got my PhD from the University of South Carolina. My dissertation was on the hormonal induction of the mouse mammary tumor virus in C3H mouse mammary epithelium (just a long way to say "causes of breast cancer in mice"). Molecular endocrinology was my field of expertise, but developental biology was my second favorite area. Most of my readings on evolution have taken place graduation when I found myself teaching college-level biology.

A rare animal? Hardly. Go to WWW.DISSENTFROMDARWIN.ORG (sorry, I cannot get the link to work) and click on download the list. And this is just one example!

[aNYCguy]

A rare animal? Hardly. Go to WWW.DISSENTFROMDARWIN.ORG

Do they have a version of the list with only biology-related signatories? I mean, the first guy on the list is a physical chemist, and a few signatories later is a geology professor in Nigeria.